Amazon Explains POD Move; Ingram Raises Questions – 3/31/2008 1:56:00 PM – Publishers Weekly
In his statement, John Ingram said that while “the questions that are being raised about Amazon.com and its Booksurge division don’t directly relate to Ingram – either Lightning Source Inc. or Ingram Book Group – it clearly is alarming many of our publisher partners.” According to John Ingram, “publishers are telling us they feel Amazon.com’s actions are not appropriate.” John Ingram’s statement adds that the company has been unable to get a direct response from Amazon about its pod shift.
“We all live in a world where decisions are made about insourcing and outsourcing, and free choice is important,” the statement continues. “At Ingram Book and Lightning Source, we are going to work really hard to continue to be the compelling choice as publishers make their outsourcing decisions. Our breadth of distribution channels including the online retailers remains the same, and Ingram still provides one day turnaround in the fulfillment of orders for books including print on demand titles.”
Good for PW, getting Ingram to weigh in. LSI can still deliver every one of its 400,000 titles to Amazon in 24 hours.
The news story is really:
Amazon to readers: we’re removing a huge chunk of our catalog.
Amazon.com–Print on Demand
Open letter to interested parties:
We wanted to make sure those who are interested have an opportunity to understand what we’re changing with print on demand and why we’re doing so.
One question that we’ve seen is a simple one. Is Amazon requiring that print-on-demand books be printed inside Amazon’s own fulfillment centers, and if so why?
Yes.
Full bumpf available here
Amazon: you are a technology company. Do not make publishers reformat their entire backlist to conform to Booksurge specs. It is patently unreasonable to ask publishers to reformat thousands of books into Booksurge’s proprietary spec format. If you want to “own” POD, then man up and do the work. Or better yet, do a deal with LSI to put LSI machines in your fulfillment centers.
Amazon: what happened to your promise of being “the world’s greatest bookstore?”. Are you seriously telling your own customers that if a POD book takes 24 hours to ship to you, it is too hard for you to acquire it for your customers?
If he does, it’s because he has (correctly) calcuated that this choice will give him maximum attention. If he chooses Michigan, he and Rodriguez will be on the cover of Sports Illustrated Sep. 1. If he chooses Ohio State, he will be a backup quarterback Sep. 1.
SportingNews.com – Your expert source for NCAA Football stats, scores, standings, and blogs from NCAA Football columnists
Roy Hall, Pryor’s quarterbacks coach, told the Plain Dealer in Cleveland that he believes Pryor will choose Ohio State.But Reitz told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, “I think Michigan has closed the gap some the past few weeks. Their coaches believe they have a shot.”
Amazon.com: sdae102’s review of BB-67 MONTANA, U.S. Navy Battleship: Why S…
5.0 out of 5 stars outstanding, March 10, 2008
By sdae102
A unique volume that depicts USS Montana as if the ship had been completed The photos of the model work are excellent. And the artwork of the ship by noted naval artist wayne scarpaci is outstanding.
It’s really heartening that this guy liked what I did.
I am a best-selling battleship author. Go figure!
Condiment: Comment: The New Yorker
If McCain really wants to have it all—to refurbish his maverick image without having to flip-flop on the panderings that have tarnished it; to galvanize the attention of the press, the nation, and the world; to make a bold play for the center without seriously alienating “the base”—then he can avail himself of a highly interesting option: Condoleezza Rice.
Someone who is actually qualified to be President. I am getting tired of reading about governors who don’t have foreign policy experience. They have got to have some overseas seasoning before they are qualfiied to sit in the big chair.
TheHill.com – It’s over
Suggestion for Obama:
The next time Hillary uses the recycled red phone ad, counter with one of your own. When the phone rings in the middle of the night, have a woman’s voice, with a flat Midwestern accent, answer it and say, “Hold on” into the receiver. Then she should shout, “Bill! It’s for you!”
Dick Morris is a chumbucket, but a smart one.
 wfzimmerman’s review: “The blurb on the cover of the paperback edition that calls this "one of the best sci-fi books I’ve ever read" is not far off the mark.”
Tor Books (2008), Edition: First Edition, Paperback, 384 pages
Camera Spots Wolverine in Sierra Nevada – The Huffington Post
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A research project aimed at weasels has turned up a bigger prize: a picture of a wolverine, an elusive animal scientists feared may have been driven out of the Sierra Nevada long ago by human activity.
The discovery could affect land-use decisions if the wolverine is declared an endangered species, a step the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering, although the animals typically live at high elevations where there is limited development.
A graduate student at Oregon State University, Katie Moriarty, got a picture of a wolverine recently on a motion-and-heat-detecting digital camera set up between Truckee and Sierraville, in the northern part of the mountain range.
Moriarty was trying to get pictures of martens, which are slender brown weasels, for a project she was doing with the U.S. Forest Service’s Pacific Southwest Research Station.
She said that when she saw the wolverine in the picture early last Sunday morning, it was a “complete shock. It was not something I would expect by any means.”
News of the picture surprised scientists, who thought wolverines, if they still inhabited the Sierra, would be found only in the southern part of the range, not in the Lake Tahoe area.
There had been sightings of wolverines by reputable people but no solid proof they were still in the Sierra, said Bill Zielinski, a research ecologist for the Forest Service who was working with Moriatry.
“The conventional wisdom was that they were pretty much gone from California,” said Zielinski. “There’s been a lot of other camera work and a variety of methods used to track rare carnivores. Those same methods, if wolverines had been around, would have detected them, we thought.”
Gary Gygax, ‘Father of D&D,’ Dies at 69 | The Underwire from Wired.com
Gary Gygax, one of the co-creators of the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, died Tuesday morning at his home in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, according to Stephen Chenault, CEO of Troll Lord Games.
First off, I have to say that having the person who reports your death be the CEO of Troll Lord Games is pretty cool.
Next, I have to say that Gary Gygax had a profound impact on popular culture. I doubt if he ever made very many Top 100 lists, but he should have.
Finally, I have to say that from my perspective as a book publisher, Gary Gygax should be remembered not just as the guy who invented D&D, but as a brilliant author and book publisher.
  
His Dungeons and Dragons books sold like hotcakes and (appropriately) spawned dozens of new editions and spinoff titles. He did what every publisher dreams of.
Tip of the hat to Murdoc Online for spotting this story.
Patrick Swayze Diagnosed With Cancer, Five Weeks Left to
Patrick Swayze, best known for his role in Dirty Dancing, has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and told that he has just five weeks to live.
Swayze, 55, has been sick with the disease since he was diagnosed in late January with pancreatic cancer. The cancer has since spread to other organs and now the actor/dancer is dying.
For the past month, Swayze has been traveling to Stanford University’s prestigious cancer center in Palo Alto for radical chemotherapy, but his doctors are no longer optimistic that the treatments will be successful, according to the National Enquirer.
Swayze received three treatments of chemotherapy, causing the tumor to shrink, but less than his doctors had hoped for. He was then told that he should prepare for the end.
Way too many people have died recently. Patrick Swayze made some indelible contributions to people of my generation with DIRTY DANCING and GHOST.
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